Discovery of novel antibiotics through synthesis of lab-based (biochem/microbio) and computational microbiology (molecular dynamics/deep generative learning/AI)

As stated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.

As a research group, we have been working on the major signalling systems in bacteria, referred to as two-component systems (TCSs), since 1999. Initially this research began by developing a fundamental understanding these complex signalling systems, then we moved into engineering these systems for biotechnological purposes, and now we target these systems with novel antibacterials.

This PhD project will directly target modulation of uptake of antibiotics by Gram-negative bacteria with a specific focus on the EnvZ-OmpR/MzrA signalling system that we colloquially refer to as the porin-regulatory complex (PRC).

The wet-lab components of this project will be conducted within newly renovated laboratory space and spans a broad range sciences including, but not limited to: molecular biology, microbiology, synthetic biology, biochemistry, fluorescence spectrophotometry, high-throughput screening and collection/management of large data sets.

The computational components of this project will include: usage of the wet-lab data to inform molecular dynamic simulations and downstream analysis (VMD/NAMD/MDAnalysis/Python). The resultant datasets (wet-lab and computational) will be used as training data for subsequent machine learning (ML) and deep generative modelling.

Applicants should possess the wet-lab expertise to carry out fundamental microbiological experimentation and we will provide downstream training on the computational components of the project. Should the applicant desire to only complete the wet-lab portion of the project, this is also possible.

As a research group, we have had success with scholarship students from several foreign governmental funding agencies. Graduates at various levels from the research group have gone on to permanent academic positions in the UK and directly into leading industrial positions within both SMEs and large biotech/pharma.

I have personally supervised more than 130 students at various levels in my research group and would love to hear from you by email. Please be sure to include a cover letter and CV in any correspondence, so that I have an understanding of your background before we communicate.

As for living in Portsmouth, several links are available below and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

A walking tour of Portsmouth is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_Tm2MvzFU

The University has produced a video discussing what living in Portsmouth is like for a student: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0ZJJ-MeX4g

There is a virtual experience available from the University here: https://virtual.port.ac.uk/

I look forward to hearing for you!

Roger